The Hen and the Caulk

     
     This past week I've been dealing with the plague.  I'm pretty sure I got it from my office mate at work.  She went down at the same time I did, and with nearly the same symptoms. So... I spent  days of my life in bed in agonizing pain, and was so tired I had to work to breathe, BUT BUT BUT I managed to accomplish a few things last weekend before it obliterated my immune system.

     I've been so incredibly busy lately, that I was very excited to get some things done in the house.  The room that has been the most neglected was my bathroom.  It had come to the point that I didn't even want to go in it anymore.  My poor tiny little bathroom was super cluttered, and well...hadn't had a really good deep down cleaning in a while.  Compounding that situation was the fact we have been ( like a lot of Americans) a little cash poor, and while I love my job it doesn't pay enough.   Everything in my bathroom is old, classic, vintage whatever you want to call it.  I have had the same multicolored stripe Martha Stewart shower curtain since my oldest was 4 (he's now 12).  The metal grommets were rusting, and we don't want to even talk about the condition of the liner.  So as a motivator to work on the bathroom,  I purchased a cute almost eggplant purple shower curtain and a new liner.  The rules were that I couldn't put it up until all tasks were complete; all the tile was wiped down ( it covers my bathroom), grout cleaned, rugs washed, everything scrubbed, floors mopped,  knickknacks dusted, the counter decluttered, and MOST OF ALL.....I had to replace the caulk in my tub.  I rent, so not one of the not so handy men had ever properly re-caulked the tub.  In one corner a "professional" had actually just made a big pile and smeared it around.  After living here for several years it was just plain ol' disgusting. It was time to get to work. 

      In the past I have used caulk to seal up some insect super secret escape hatches.  It came out great and was super simple. This time I thought, "Well, I've done this before this will be a piece of cake"!  It ended up being a bit of a big mess.  I prepped it all the night before.  I pulled out 3 layers of caulk between my tub and the tile.  It was really difficult to get it out.  When I pulled it out was was horrified to see the grout was broken into little pieces, and in one spot there was a 3/4" gap between the tub and tile.  I thought nothing I can't deal with. I made sure to clean the new open space as to get rid of dirt and decomposed grout.  This is a really important step to ensure the new caulk has fresh start and a clean surface to adhere to.  A girl doesn't want to spend all this time just to have it peel up and mildew.  The next day, I went to the store and purchased caulk.  I decided against using the regular caulk and gun and went with the type in the tube you can squeeze out yourself.  The first portion I caulked was easy, then the more I moved along the harder it became.  It was hard to get in an adequate amount of caulk in the areas where the gap was large and very deep. This is where my cake decorating skills came into play. These areas were also a trouble spot when smoothing out the calk.  In previous small jobs I just used my finger to smooth everything out, or once even used one of those tools you can buy.  The problem with this jo,b was the irregularity in the gap between the tub and tile.  I ended up using my fingers in the end, but it didn't come out as aesthetically pleasing as I would have liked.  I did accomplish the goal of making sure the areas that needed to be filled in were, and that there was no space between the caulk and tile where water could seep in.  I think next time I might change how I do things, but hopefully there won't be a next time in this apartment.  At the end of the day I completed all my mini goals in the bathroom, and with the smell of original Pine-Sol wafting in the breeze, I put up my new shower curtain.  Mission Accomplished (but not in the George W Bush sort of way haha).  It's funny how less than $20 can make a room look brand new!


Tools used for the Tub Project
Utility knife
Scrub Brush
Bleach
GE Kitchen & Bath Caulk-It
Lots of Paper Towels
Elbow Grease
  
      As for my blog self challenge/ to do list thingamabobber, I haven't decided how I am going to graphically show what I've done or what I need to do.  I'm also not sure where to place it on my blog.  These are all sorts of things I should be thinking about while I drive to work instead of singing to LMFAO songs. :) 

New shower rings ( to go with my vintage pink tile)

New shower curtain (it's much darker in RL)